Ex-Gratia: Kufuor’s parting gift that has come back to haunt Akufo-Addo

During the second term of John Agyekum Kufuor’s presidency, he set up a commission called the Chinery Hesse Commission that was to, among other things, draw up an emolument package for officeholders captured in Article 71 of Ghana’s constitution.

The report, when made public, became a contentious one with many people objecting to its contents.

From civil society groups to prominent personalities, opposition political parties and the ordinary Ghanaian, the national call for a rejection of major portions of the Commission’s report were sidestepped and the document adopted.

The infamous ex-gratia, an emolument package that is to serve as a gratuity or a ‘thank you’ for such officeholders, also came to be, ensuring that all such beneficiaries are given a certain percentage of money at the end of every four years of serving the country.

The operation of the ex-gratia meant that it didn’t matter if whoever was benefiting, continued to stay in political office after the first four years: as long as the period of four years elapsed, those monies were to be paid.

Although an attempt was made by President John Evans Atta Mills, when he took over from his predecessor, to do something about the Chinery Hesse Commission report, his Ishmael Yamson Commission only reviewed the earlier report.

Today, one of the men who served as an appointee under John Kufuor – Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is now president and it appears the ‘gift’ his former boss left the country has come to ‘haunt’ him.

One such ‘hauntings’ came by in the past week.

On Tuesday, June 7, 2022, a letter, written under the name of Togbe Afede XIV but dated Monday, June 6, 2022, captured the Paramount Chief of the Asogli State’s reasons for returning the GH¢365,392.67 paid to him as ex-gratia.

“I believe it was paid to everybody who served on the Council of State. However, I thought that extra payment was inappropriate for a short, effectively part-time work, for which I received a monthly salary and was entitled to other privileges. So, I was very uncomfortable with it.

“After weeks of trying, I obtained advice on how to refund inappropriate payments to the State, and on March 4, 2022, I made the refund into the Controller & Accountant General’s Department Suspense Account at the Bank of Ghana,” he said in the statement.

This has however become a thorn in the government’s flesh in at least the past week. This is evidenced by the fact that Paul Adom-Otchere, host of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV, has used his program since then to try and denigrate the chief.

Paul, who is also the Board Chairman of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL), an appointee of Nana Akufo-Addo, has consistently used his program to serve as a propagandist platform for government policies and to defend the position of the executive.

When the rest of the country was praising Togbe Afede XIV, Paul Adom-Otchere said the chief, who was a former Member of the Council of State, should have given back more.

He made these remarks while reacting to the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah’s commendation of Togbe Afede.

“My brother Sulemana, let us watch these things as we do nation building. Tonight, we will show the history behind Article 71 – from the consultative assembly. We will show that our overlord may have more monies to return, greater in quantum than this one. The facts will speak for themselves.

“We at GEG [Good Evening Ghana] were instrumental in getting him on the BoG board in 2002 through JH Mensah. He is a good man. But we have to build our nation on principles, please find time to watch, if not I will send you the tape,” Adom-Otchere is quoted to have said in a comment on Facebook.

Since then, there have been responses from the camp of Togbe Afede, accusations against Paul, and counteraccusations and defences that have since left many people wondering if this is not just another unfortunate card against the Akufo-Addo administration.